Questions about Sound deadening materials like dynamat, brown bag, etc.

[E-Man]

Hello all,I am looking into buying some sound deadening material for my vibe - not for stereo purposes but to quite the interior of the car down - there is just too much road noise -- long communtes in the car get to me because of the constant noise. I feel like I really have to crank up the stereo to be able to hear it well when I am on the highway. What areas of the car can I place sound deadening material to get the greatest reduction in noise - doors, front of dash (area under the dash), rear compartment under all the grey plastic, the roof? I would rather not do the entire car - just a few areas. Also, what material would you recommend - I see there is dynamat, brown bag, b-quiet and I am sure many others. How much material would I need to do each of the areas of the car that I metioned above.Thanks for any advice and suggestionsEd

[Jahntassa]

All of the sound deadening stuff that I know about is mostly to deaden the vibration from the speakers, not from road noise. To my knowledge (yes, I'm wrong on occaision), adding stuff like Dynamat won't help your ride-noise much unless you were to put it on the ENTIRE inner part of the car...meaning..tear everything out...apply..rebuild..Dynamat stuff works by changing the ugly vibrations (say, from subwoofers), into small amounts of heat, thereby adding to clarity of the sound by cutting down on the car resonating with the sound..

[JohnC]

Exact same problem/question here. I put the back seats down, then covered the entire area with a heavy quilt, this helped alot. Noticed in Consumer Reports when they did the Matrix/Vibe test that they said the Matrix was quiter due to the roof rack installed on the Vibe. I have been tryin to figure out how to remove the roof rack (including side rails) to give their comment a try. I did use sound insulating material under the rear seat of my last car (Dodge Neon) it cut down alot of the rear tire road noise. Have also used undercoating in a spray can on the plastic wheel well liners. Let us know if you find the right combination of material and location.

[ragingfish]

Maybe it's just me, but i've never been able to attribute any ride noise to the roof rack. *shrug*

[drunkenmaxx]

good point, i cant remember the last time i was like "damn it, all that noise from the roofrack is driving me nuts"